And we drown (2015)
wind ensemble
c. 9 minutes
When I first set out to write my masters thesis, I imagined that it would be a work for orchestra and narrator who would recite the text of T. S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” (1917). Although I quickly abandoned the idea of a narrator, I kept the tentative title “And we drown”—the last three words of Eliot’s poem—in the back of my mind. While I did not want to lock myself into a certain perspective right away, I liked the way in which the potential title subtly referred to the poem without forcing the listener to hear the piece with a specific narrative.
The switch from orchestra to wind ensemble happened some time later, after many sketches had been written and posted onto my bedroom wall. One night at dinner, one of my band-loving friends asked me when I was planning on writing a piece for wind ensemble. The next time I sat down to compose, I reimagined some of my sketches for wind ensemble, and something clicked. And we drown is indeed my first work for wind ensemble. In writing this piece, I sought to explore the combination of sounds, timbres, and colors that is unique to the ensemble.
c. 9 minutes
When I first set out to write my masters thesis, I imagined that it would be a work for orchestra and narrator who would recite the text of T. S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” (1917). Although I quickly abandoned the idea of a narrator, I kept the tentative title “And we drown”—the last three words of Eliot’s poem—in the back of my mind. While I did not want to lock myself into a certain perspective right away, I liked the way in which the potential title subtly referred to the poem without forcing the listener to hear the piece with a specific narrative.
The switch from orchestra to wind ensemble happened some time later, after many sketches had been written and posted onto my bedroom wall. One night at dinner, one of my band-loving friends asked me when I was planning on writing a piece for wind ensemble. The next time I sat down to compose, I reimagined some of my sketches for wind ensemble, and something clicked. And we drown is indeed my first work for wind ensemble. In writing this piece, I sought to explore the combination of sounds, timbres, and colors that is unique to the ensemble.